Battle of Suwaib

The Battle of Suwaib was an action that occurred during the Persian campaign of Roman emperor Valerian in 253 AD. The Romans defeated a superior Persian army using fire arrows to scare off the elephants, and their veteran infantry defeated the Persian levy spearmen.

Background
Roman emperor Valerian was a mortal foe of the Sassanids, who were led by King Shapur I of Persia. After becoming emperor following the Rhine Legion's murder of Aemilian in 253 AD, Valerian started a series of campaigns against the Persians. These campaigns were led by veteran general Gaius Acilius Cotta, who had over 9,000 troops of Syrian, Asian (Turkish), Judean, and Egyptian cohorts. The Army of Asia was met by 11,000 Persians near Ctesiphon under Bagabuxsha, at the modern-day Iraqi town of Suwaib.

Battle
The Eastern Romans had the fewer amount of men, so they planned to defeat the enemy elephants with fire. They lined their infantry in front with archers in the rear and cavalry on the flanks. Since the Persians marched around their line, they had to re-position. The Byzantine eastern cavalry (equipped with bows) harried the moving enemy forces and drew them back to the reformed Roman line, and the archers fired flaming arrows, which scared off the Persian elephants. The levy spearmen rushed onwards into battle, and the Roman Comitantenses cut them to ribbons with their superior weapon skills. The battle was confirmed to be a Roman victory when Bagabuxsha and his Immortals were massacred by charging Roman infantry. The Romans pursued the routing Persians, and over 8,000 of the Sassanids were killed. The Persians were entirely defeated, while Rome lost only around 1,000 dead.

Aftermath
Acilius fought in Mesopotamia for seven more years, until he fell ill and returned home. Soon after, Shapur defeated and captured Valerian, who died in captivity in 260 AD.